New Fast, Highly Selective Probe with Both Aggregation-Induced Emission Enhancement and Intramolecular Charge-Transfer Characteristics for Homocysteine Detection

A new fluorescence
probe 2-(4′-(diphenylamino)-[1,1-biphenyl]-4-yl)-2H-[1,2,3]-triazole-4-carbaldehyde (DBTC) was designed and
synthesized through Suzuki coupling reaction between (4-(diphenylamino)­phenyl)­boronic
acid and (4-bromophenyl)-2H-[1,2,3]-triazole-4-carbaldehyde.
This probe DBTC had intramolecular charge transfer and aggregation-induced
emission enhancement performances and showed high selectivity and
sensitivity toward homocysteine (Hcy) in the presence of other amino
acids. The detection limit of probe DBTC for Hcy was 3.05 × 10–6 M, and the mechanism was researched by 1H NMR titration experiments and mass spectrometry. Furthermore, cell-culture
results indicated that probe DBTC was cell permeable and could be
used to detect Hcy in living cells. The good characteristics of the
probe DBTC had huge application potential use for researching the
effects of Hcy in other biological systems.